New Role Suggestion: On-Ship merchants

[FlamingLily]

It's late and I haven't really thought this through a lot but I wanted to get a forum post out while I remember I might come back and touch it up later but here we go
Also disclaimer, as with all my suggestions, I'm willing to make it myself, just posting for a gauge of interest

 

An on-ship merchant is, as the name implies, a merchant, on the ship. Not the same as independent ones, who come and go with exotic goods; The role of an on-ship merchant is to sell domestic goods and appliances to the crew for their dorms, condos, and corapts. They will be a member of service or operations (i'm undecided) and have their own commissary near cargo (this is to encourage cooperation, as maybe cargo wants to sell some warehouse contents and can give them to the merchant).

In the commisary will be a small storeroom with 4 or so crates, spawning with various domestic goods such as clothes, toiletries, small appliances like PAIs and accessories etc. Nothing that would impact game flow, nothing contrabandy, kitchen-y, bartender-y or hydroponics-y.

They'll also have a civilian style autolathe, capable of recieving plastic and fabric (and beakers of flouride) and can print some clothes, towels, toothbrushes and toothpaste, various simple domestic goods. More complex stuff can be sourced by cargo or can spawn in the storage room.

(Optionally) The merchant will have a similar immunity to contraband laws that the warehouse does, anything not being used but instead stored or displayed for sale is not in breach of contraband regulations

Edited July 13, 2022 by FlamingLily

[Captain Gecko]

So that might be good but I have several issues with this.

On a gameplay perspective this is a tad redundant, first with the usual off-ship merchant, and with the operations department. We can already ask Hangar Techs for stuff from the warehouse and get some for free (and if not, by doing our job and filling bounties), why would we pay for a merchant's gear, let alone go through the hassle of heading there and doing the whole transaction when you're working, need something quick, and cargo can send your stuff straight through the delivery chute? Worst case scenario, science can print all kinds of gear for you, advanced or not, for free as well. Whoever is going to play this on-ship merchant is going to get very bored, very quick I imagine.

On a roleplay perspective, it makes literally no sense. I've been questioning the reason why some chefs and bartender would make you pay for products that the company already pays for. I mean there's no sense in paying the bartender yourself if they are already paid by their company to be there, right? But most of those doing this were Idris so, you know what, it's Idris, they are weird, they have a different way to work with money, and hey, perhaps it's just character ripping ours off. It however makes no sense for the SCC to add a merchant on their ship that is no only paid via a salary, but also... Does transactions with people paid by the same companies. It also makes no sense for them to do the same for an independant, because they would be wasting room and resources for a merchant that actually stays there and take room in this unique exploration vessel... Unless I assume the merchant was paying a fortune for that, but even then it gets very... Weird and to me makes little to no sense.

[Dreamix]

On a roleplay perspective, it absolutely does make sense. Why do you have to pay the bartender for the drinks? Because we don't have an unlimited number of bottles, and fancy booze is not necessary for you to live and work efficiently, like air or living space or work uniforms are. You want nice things, like fancy drinks, good food, bigger room, stylish clothes, jewelry and accessories - you have to pay for them from your own pocket. And besides, in real life, this is already a thing: list of things sold to crew on US ships in WW2 or whatever. That's called a slop chest, ship store, or something like that, and they do function today as well, on modern ships or aircraft carriers, I am sure.

On a gameplay perspective, I have mixed feelings. I think it's cool and makes sense, but this would probably be rarely visited, cause like, I don't think it would generate a lot of roleplay. There's only so much "hey, I ran out of toothpaste in my room" or "hello, my jumpsuit got torn and ruined and I need a new one" that you can try to roleplay out. Maybe it could be better as like, a set of vendors for clothes, accessories, toiletries, etc, instead of a dedicated person to sell these.

Also, this is not redundant, because this is stuff for the crew, not for the work that they're doing. You order metal and plasteel from cargo, upgraded engineering tools from science, but a new set of clothes from this on-ship merchant.